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Police continues to arrest curfew violators As the situation begins to normalize on the island of Sint Maarten and curfews issued during the evening hours, persons continue to violate this law and venture out on the streets without a hurricane pass. Between Wednesday September 20th and Thursday September 21st a total of 10 persons were […]

Even though a 24 hours curfew until further notice went into effect prior to the passing of hurricane “Maria”, to safeguard the safety and security of the community, numerous persons did not respect this measure and ventured out on the public streets anyhow. As a result hereof on Wednesday September 20th, at approximately 09.45 a.m. […]

There are similar warnings against travelling to the British territories of Anguilla and the Turks And Caicos islands which are on Maria’s forecast path for Wednesday and Thursday.

But there are currently no warning against travelling to the British dependency of St Kitts and Nevis, and the French island of Guadeloupe which the hurricane is forecast to hit on Tuesday. Instead the FCO advices tourists to monitor hurricane updates.

A similar message currently applies to the British dependency of Antigua and Barbuda, which were hit by Irma, but which are just north-east of Maria’s forecast path. The advice currently says:

There are no reports of damage to hotels or tourist infrastructure on Antigua. The airport is open. Visitors should follow the advice of the local authorities and their tour operators.

Skerrit said there was widespread damage, with roofs swept from buildings. Reports said the island’s Princess Margaret hospital, in the capital Roseau, was battered, and radio stations stopped broadcasting as the storm crashed over the island of 72,000 people.

Maria has since skirted to the south of the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe, heading towards Montserrat and St Kitts & Nevis.

It has dipped slightly to category four, with wind speeds of 155mph (250kmh). But the US National Hurricane Center warned:

Maria is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous category 4 or 5 hurricane while it approaches the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

On the forecast track, the eye of Maria will move over the northeastern Caribbean Sea today, and approach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico tonight and Wednesday.

Relief efforts in the British and US Virgin Islands after the devastation of Hurricane Irma have been halted as residents brace themselves for another onslaught.

Puerto Rico is also preparing itself for what could be the strongest hurricane to slam the island for almost a century. On Monday, public safety commissioner Hector Pesquera told residents in homes not built to withstand such intense winds to move to shelters:

You have to evacuate. Otherwise you’re going to die. I don’t know how to make this any clearer.

The Virgin Islands suffered widespread devastation from Hurricane Irma and relief efforts there are currently hampered – or halted – by the approaching Maria.

All residents in the British Virgin Islands have been told to take shelter immediately.

Brigadier John Ridge, the second in command of the UK’s Joint Task Force, warned:

They are either going to get the wind, which will pick up all the debris that is lying around – and also, irritatingly, where they have made progress in getting covers over the houses and power lines up, it will potentially damage that again.

Or they get a huge amount of rain, which is also bad because of the blockages in the drainage channels, so the potential for some quite serious flooding as well.

Whatever happens, it doesn’t look good, sadly.

They had an hour’s rain a few days ago and that created four foot of flooding, so if you get potentially 12 hours of rain you can imagine how much worse that will be.

There are already 1,300 UK troops in the region for the aftermath of Irma, and more supplies are due to arrive this weekend when HMS Ocean reaches the Caribbean.

Irma relief efforts on the British Virgin Islands have been halted as Hurricane Maria approaches. Photograph: LPhot Joel Rouse/EPA

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Dominica PM: ‘We will need help’

Initial reports are of widespread devastation. So far we have lost all what money can buy and replace.

My greatest fear for the morning is that we will wake to news of serious physical injury and possible deaths as a result of likely landslides triggered by persistent rains.

So far the winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with. The roof to my own official residence was among the first to go and this apparently triggered an avalanche of torn-away roofs in the city and the countryside.

Come tomorrow morning we will hit the road, as soon as the all-clear is given, in search of the injured and those trapped in the rubble.

I am honestly not preoccupied with physical damage at this time, because it is devastating … indeed, mind-boggling. My focus now is in rescuing the trapped and securing medical assistance for the injured.

We will need help, my friend, we will need help of all kinds.

It is too early to speak of the condition of the air and seaports, but I suspect both will be inoperable for a few days. That is why I am eager now to solicit the support of friendly nations and organisations with helicopter services, for I personally am eager to get up and get around the country to see and determine what’s needed.

Maria dips to category four

Maria’s wind speeds have dipped slightly – from 160mph (260kmh) as it crossed Dominica to 155mph (250kmh) over the Caribbean Sea now – which means the US National Hurricane Center now labels it a category four storm. But the NHC warns:

Maria is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous category 4 or 5 hurricane while it approaches the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

On the forecast track, the eye of Maria will move over the northeastern Caribbean Sea today, and approach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico tonight and Wednesday.

The latest advisory from the US National Hurricane Center – at just before 2am in the Caribbean – is that: “Maria remains an extremely dangerous hurricane after moving over Dominica.”

Maria is currently passing west-north-west of Dominica, its eye having crossed directly over the island, and is heading towards St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Irma on St Thomas and St John less than two weeks ago.

What we know so far

Hurricane Maria has intensified quickly to a category five storm and made landfall on the Caribbean island of Dominica.

Winds of up to 160mph (260kmh) and heavy rains lashed the island as the eye of the hurricane passed directly across it on Monday night.

There is not yet confirmation of any deaths or injuries from the first category five hurricane in recorded history to hit Dominica, but the prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit – who had to be rescued from his own flooded home – said he feared the worst.

Skerrit said there was widespread damage, with roofs swept from buildings. Reports said the island’s Princess Margaret hospital, in the capital Roseau, was battered, and radio stations stopped broadcasting as the storm crashed over the island of 72,000 people.

Maria is now heading towards Guadeloupe, the British overseas territory of Montserrat, and St Kitts & Nevis, still at category five strength.

All residents of Guadeloupe were ordered to take shelter on Monday evening and not go out under any circumstances. The French overseas territory was being used as a base for relief efforts for islands struck by Hurricane Irma.

The hurricane is then forecast to swing towards the British and US Virgin Islands and to Puerto Rico, where another state of emergency has been declared.

Roosevelt Skerrit, the prime minister of Dominica, has told Caracas-based Telesur TV that rescue teams will head out when dawn breaks on Tuesday (it is currently 1.20am local time).

Skerrit said:

My greatest fear is that we will wake to news of serious physical injury, possible deaths … Come tomorrow morning we will hit the road in search of the injured and those trapped in the rubble.

Winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with.

My focus now is rescuing the trapped and securing medical assistance. We will need help of all kinds … Dominica needs support from friends for helicopter services to get around the country [and] determine what’s needed.

As Maria moves away from Dominica, next in its sights are Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory, and Montserrat, a British overseas territory.

Press Association has spoken to Carolyne Coleby, a photographer and sheep farmer on Montserrat, as the hurricane began to approach:

“It is raining and the winds are picking up – it is going to hit us from the south, which is very serious,” Coleby said,

Montserrat escaped the clutches of Hurricane Irma relatively unscathed, but Coleby said people have been told to be “much more worried this time”.

“This is the most serious hurricane we have had so far. It is the third one in two weeks, but this is serious for us because of the direction it is approaching,” she added.

Coleby said just 5,000 people call Montserrat home, and that she has lived on the island for more than 10 years. “We have never experienced a hurricane season like this – it is just crazy, it is obviously climate change,” she said.

She said the geological makeup of the island, which includes an active volcano, could cause problems such as landslides and flooding and that the storm is “really going to impact” them.

“I was worried about Irma but it was really nothing for us – we got half an hour, an hour of rain and heavy winds and that was it after it passed.

“But this time is different because we know it is going to hit us and we know there is going to be an impact.”

The prime minister of Dominica has used Facebook to describe in harrowing detail – and in real time – his own rescue from the destruction of Hurricane Maria.

The category five storm passed directly over the island nation of Dominica on Monday night local time. Amid gusts of wind up to 260kmh (160mph) the country’s long-serving leader, Roosevelt Skerrit, rode out the storm from his home.

“The winds are merciless!” wrote 45-year-old Skerrit on Facebook. “We shall survive by the grace of God!”

An hour later as the winds increased he wrote: “We do not know what is happening outside. We not dare look out. All we are hearing is the sound of galvanize [roofing] flying. The sound of the fury of the wind. As we pray for its end!”

Skerrit said he believed his house had sustained damage, exclaiming: “Rough! Rough! Rough!”

He then confirmed it: “My roof is gone. I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane. House is flooding.”

Roosevelt has not posted since telling his friends and followers: “I have been rescued.”

It has been a punishing three hours for the 72,000 residents of Dominica – and it is not yet over, warns the Trinidad and Tobago weather centre, which says the outer bands of Hurricane Maria will continue to move over the island overnight, “exacerbating the devastating flooding situation”:

TTWeatherCenter(@TTWeatherCenter)

Dominica has experienced at least 3 hours of sustained winds of 260 KM/H with gusts in excess of 315KM/H. https://t.co/jNAuQUhyHJ

The Caribbean-wide response to Hurricane Irma has been piecemeal and there needs to be a new permanent level of coordination, including better international early warning weather systems, Boris Johnson has said.

The British foreign secretary was speaking on Monday at a meeting on the margins of the United Nations general assembly convened by the UK and bringing together British ministers, the French foreign minister Jean-Yves le Drian, the Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders and leaders from the Caribbean.

Johnson said that “everyone is desperately worried by Hurricane Maria, currently threatening Caribbean islands”.

The meeting heard that islands such as Anguilla will take as long as two years to recover since it is totally dependent on tourism and the hotel industry is devastated.

In his most self-critical comments yet on the international response to the disaster, Johnson described the operation as “all a bit piecemeal and bit hand to mouth”:

If I am being totally honest, people have been ringing each other up and saying, ‘what can we do?’. We don’t need a gigantic new bureaucracy but we do need a smooth way to respond to what is obviously going to be an intensifying pattern of horrific weather events in the Caribbean.

What we are trying to build here is a Caribbean recovery plan. We need an automatic recovery system.

We still have to deal with Hurricane Maria and we need to get supplies to areas that have not been affected by Irma. They have not had the water proofing, and the plywood. We need to coordinate better in our predictions.

(BBC) — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood, an abortion and healthcare provider, have sued Alabama over its ban on abortion. The groups called the “extreme” law a “manmade public health emergency”. The ban, which offers no exceptions for rape or incest, was signed last week but has not taken effect. Anti-abortion […]

(BBC) — At least 23 inmates have died after clashes broke out at a jail inside a Venezuelan police station, according to a rights group. At least 14 police officers were wounded, Una Ventana a la Libertad said. The jail, in Acarigua, is designed to hold 250 people but currently has around 540 inmates, the […]